Informed consent for HRT into the Unimelb Health Service
Informed Consent Gender Affirming HRT prescribed by UniMelb Health Service GPs
Despite GPs being able to prescribe gender affirming hormone replacement therapy (HRT) via the informed consent pathway with simple training, the University of Melbourne Health Service still lacks any GP who can prescribe HRT to Trans and Gender Diverse patients at the Service. Instead, any requests are referred to external services and specialists, which are often costly, unreliable, and have long waiting lists. The University’s Health Service has the ability to provide these life saving services to one of the most marginalised demographic of students, which we will fight to be implemented.
Why this matters
Gender affirming care is lifesaving care. The UniMelb Health Service offers accessible and affordable medical care for students, staff, and their families, which is crucial amidst a time of more and more services ceasing Bulk Billing. Considering many Trans and Gender Diverse students do not have the financial support, nor often the mental capacity to go through the arduous and often humiliating process with external specialists to get HRT, the UniMelb Health Service should provide easy and low cost prescription to the group of students who need it most!
How we implement it
We’ll push for the University to guarantee that its Health Service always has GPs who are trained to prescribe informed consent HRT. RMIT’s Medical Hub has long been providing gender affirming care services, including informed consent HRT, which is free for RMIT students to access. Many Trans and Gender Diverse UniMelb students end up going to RMIT to receive this care, but have to pay full fees. University clinics are capable of offering these services: UniMelb is not doing enough for Transgender students to access the care they need.